AI/ML Engineer - School

Cengage; United States; On-site; USD 102,000 - 163,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Global impact

Cutting-edge AI tools

Competitive compensation

Job summary

Cengage is seeking an AI/ML Engineer – School (K-12) to deliver AI features for teachers, students, and administrators. You will build production AI for lesson planning, grading, and student support while maintaining strict FERPA/COPPA compliance and safety standards.

Ideal candidates will ship K-12 or consumer-safe AI features, work with OpenAI/Anthropic/AWS Bedrock, and collaborate with governance, curriculum, and learning science teams to measure impact and ensure safety.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field.
• 4+ years of software engineering experience, with at least 2 years in AI/ML.
• Strong proficiency in Python with production ML/LLM experience.
• Hands-on experience with modern AI APIs (OpenAI, Anthropic, AWS Bedrock).
• Strong understanding of FERPA, COPPA, and education data privacy requirements.
• Experience building AI systems with safety, content filtering, and guardrails.
• Solid software engineering fundamentals including testing, CI/CD, and system design.
• Excellent judgment on child safety and age-appropriate design decisions.

Responsibilities

• Develop AI tools for teacher lesson planning, worksheet creation, and content adaptation.
• Build AI-powered grading, feedback, and formative assessment features.
• Create age-appropriate student support, tutoring, and help experiences.
• Build administrator analytics and early-warning systems for student intervention.
• Integrate AI capabilities into the Cengage School product ecosystem.
• Ensure FERPA, COPPA, and state-level student privacy compliance in every feature.
• Implement child safety guardrails, content filtering, and age-appropriate AI behavior.
• Partner with Governance on policy enforcement for minors and classroom contexts.
• Handle parent, district, and state-level data privacy and audit requirements.
• Build transparency and explainability into AI features used with minors.

Skills

Python

AI/ML fundamentals

FERPA/COPPA compliance

Safety-focused design

Shipping mindset

Child safety awareness

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or related field

Tools

OpenAI API

Anthropic API

AWS Bedrock

LangChain

Hugging Face

AWS SageMaker

Job description

We believe in the power and joy of learning. At Cengage, our employees have a direct impact in helping students around the world discover the power and joy of learning. We are bonded by our shared purpose – driving innovation that helps millions of learners improve their lives and achieve their dreams through education.

Cengage's portfolio of businesses supports student choice by providing a range of pathways that help learners achieve their goals and lead a choice-filled life.

Our culture values inclusion, engagement, and discovery. Our business is driven by our strong culture, and we know that creating an inclusive workplace is absolutely essential to the success of our company and our learners, as well as our individual well-being. We recognize the value of diverse perspectives in everything we do, and strive to ensure employees of all levels and backgrounds feel empowered to voice their ideas and bring their authentic selves to work. We achieve these priorities through programs, benefits, and initiatives that are integrated into the fabric of how we work every day. To learn more, please see https://www.cengagegroup.com/about/inclusion-and-belonging/.

The AI/ML Engineer – School (K-12) delivers AI solutions tailored to K-12 educators, students, and administrators. You will build production AI features that save teachers time on lesson planning and grading, provide personalized support to students, and do so under the strictest compliance and safety standards of any education segment.

This role is unique because K-12 demands more than technical skill — it demands sensitivity to child safety, FERPA compliance, COPPA considerations, and the realities of how teachers actually work. The ideal candidate has shipped K-12 or consumer-safe AI features before and understands that in this domain, 'safe by default' is table stakes.

Key Responsibilities

K-12 AI Feature Development

• Build AI tools for teacher lesson planning, worksheet creation, and content adaptation
• Develop AI-powered grading, feedback, and formative assessment features
• Create age-appropriate student support, tutoring, and help experiences
• Build administrator analytics and early-warning systems for student intervention
• Integrate AI capabilities into the Cengage School product ecosystem

Compliance & Child Safety

• Ensure FERPA, COPPA, and state-level student data privacy compliance in every feature
• Implement child safety guardrails, content filtering, and age-appropriate AI behavior
• Partner with Governance on policy enforcement for minors and classroom contexts
• Handle parent, district, and state-level data privacy and audit requirements
• Build transparency and explainability into AI features used with minors

Optimization & Impact

• Optimize features based on teacher usage data and feedback
• Measure teacher adoption rates, time saved per educator, and classroom impact
• Partner with curriculum and learning science teams on efficacy measurement
• Iterate rapidly while maintaining compliance posture at every release
• Maintain documentation and engineering runbooks for all deployed features

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field
• 4+ years of experience in software engineering, with at least 2 years focused on AI/ML
• Strong proficiency in Python with experience building production ML or LLM systems
• Hands-on experience with modern AI APIs (OpenAI, Anthropic, AWS Bedrock)
• Strong understanding of FERPA, COPPA, and education data privacy requirements
• Experience building AI systems with safety, content filtering, and guardrails
• Solid software engineering fundamentals including testing, CI/CD, and system design
• Excellent judgment on child safety and age-appropriate design decisions

Preferred Qualifications

• Prior experience building AI features for K-12 or consumer-safe environments
• Background in EdTech with direct teacher or classroom exposure
• Familiarity with state-level student data privacy regulations (SOPIPA, New York Ed Law 2-d)
• Experience with content moderation, red-teaming, or AI safety evaluation
• Familiarity with agentic AI frameworks (LangChain, LlamaIndex)
• Experience with accessibility standards (WCAG, Section 508, DOJ accessibility)

Tools & Technologies

You Should Be Comfortable With Many Of The Following

• Languages: Python, JavaScript/TypeScript, SQL
• AI/ML: OpenAI API, Anthropic API, AWS Bedrock, LangChain, Hugging Face
• Safety: Content moderation APIs, custom guardrail systems, red-team frameworks
• Cloud: AWS (Lambda, ECS, SageMaker, Bedrock), Azure OpenAI
• Data: Snowflake, Databricks, Postgres, Redis
• DevOps: Docker, Terraform, GitHub Actions, CI/CD pipelines

Key Competencies

• Child Safety First — makes conservative design choices when minors are involved
• Compliance Rigor — builds FERPA/COPPA compliance into every feature from the start
• Teacher Empathy — understands the realities of classroom workflow and time pressure
• Shipping Mindset — delivers features on cadence while maintaining compliance posture
• Technical Craft — writes clean, tested, production-grade code
• Collaboration — partners effectively with product, legal, and curriculum teams

What We Offer

• Opportunity to shape AI at scale across a global learning company
• Direct impact on business outcomes, product, and workforce productivity
• Access to cutting-edge AI tools, platforms, and technologies
• Collaborative team environment focused on innovation and continuous improvement

Cengage is committed to working with broad talent pools to attract and hire strong and most qualified individuals. Our job applicants are considered regardless of any classification protected by applicable federal, state, provincial or local laws.

Cengage is also committed to providing reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals with disabilities including during our job application process. If you are an applicant with a disability and require reasonable accommodation in our job application process, please contact us at [e-mail].

About Cengage

Cengage, a global education technology company serving millions of learners, provides affordable, quality digital products and services that equip students with the skills and competencies needed to be job ready. For more than 100 years, we have enabled the power and joy of learning with trusted, engaging content, and now, integrated digital platforms. We serve the higher education, workforce skills, secondary education, English language teaching and research markets worldwide. Through our scalable technology, including MindTap and Cengage Unlimited, we support all learners who seek to improve their lives and achieve their dreams through education.

Compensation

At Cengage Group, we take great pride in our commitment to providing a comprehensive and rewarding Total Rewards package designed to support and empower our employees. Click here to learn more about our Total Rewards Philosophy.

The full base pay range has been provided for this position. Individual base pay will vary based on work schedule, qualifications, experience, internal equity, and geographic location. Sales roles often incorporate a significant incentive compensation program beyond this base pay range.

In this position, you will be eligible to participate in the company’s discretionary incentive bonus program. This position's bonus target amount, which is not guaranteed and is dependent on individual performance and overall company results among other factors, is provided below.

10% Annual: Individual Target

$101,900.00 - $163,000.00 USD